Car-door-locking device



July 15 1924. I w. J. MARTIN CAR DOOR LOCKING DEVICE Filed July 18 19221 l 1 1 1 1 .J 9w

Patented July 15, 1924.

barren states I iserzzs PATENT GFFHQE.

WILLIAld J. MARTIN, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

CAR-DOOR-LOCKING DEVICE.

Application filed July 18, 1922. Serial No. 575,860.

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, lVILLIAM J. HARTIN, a citizen of'the United States,residing in Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Car-Door-Locking Devices, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a lock for car owners in which electricity isused for controlling the operation of the lock.

The objects of this invention are to produce a lock of this characterwhich will securely fasten the door in its closed position when requiredand also permit of the ready release of the same by the use of anelectric current which is not readily available, excepting by thoseauthorized to ope ate the lock, which is comparatively simple inconstruction and capable of being readily installed on cars now of usualconstruction and which is so organized that it permits of leaving thedoor unobstructed throughout the full width thereof when the lock isnotin use and also enables part of the locking mechanism to serve as anindicator when the door has been closed without being locked and thusaid in detecting attempts to gain illicit entrance to the car.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevationof a car body having its door equipped with my improved locking device.Figure 2 is a horizontal section taken on line 22, Fig. 1. Figure 3 is afragmentary vertical longitudinal section, on ansenlarged scale,taken online 83, Fig. 2, showing the parts in the position which they occupywhen the door is locked. Figure 4 is a similar View, showing theposition of the parts which they occupy when the door is unlocked.Figure 5 and dare horizontal sections taken on the correspondinglynumbered lines in Fig. 3. Figure 7 .is a fragmentary vertical section.taken on line 7-7, Fig. 1.

Similar characters of reference refer to like parts throughout theseveral views.

Although this invention is applicable to car bodies of variousconstructions, that shown in the drawings is of a common and well knowntype andv comprises a body having a bottom 10, a top 11, a side wall 12provided with a door opening 1 3, and a door 14 mounted on the outerside of the wall so as to be capable of sliding horizontally across thedoor opening for closing the same or on one side of this door openingfor opening the same. This door may be mounted in any suitable manner,for instance, by means of a hanger 15 secured to the top of the door andrunning upon a suitable guide rail mounted on the adjacent part of thewall, while its lower end is confinedagainst lateral displacement bymeans of guide lugs 16. The forward movement of'the door is arrestedwhen the same is in a position in which it extends across the dooropening by means of a stop 17 arranged on the outer side of thewall andadapted to be engaged by. the front edge of the door, as shown in Figs.1 and 2.

The details of construction of the door locking device embodying myinvention may be varied, but in the particular organization shown in thedrawings, as an example of one embodiment of my invention, the same isconstructed as follows:

18 represents an enclosing casing which preferably takes the place ofthe lower part of the door stop 17 of which a portion has been omittedfor this purpose. This casing may be of any suitable construction, forinstance cast iron, and secured to the adjacent part of the car wall inany suitable manner, for instance by means of bolts 50, as shown inFigs. 5 and 7. Within this casing, near the lower end thereof, isarranged a vertically movable locking member having preferably the formof a circular disk 19, which is secured to the lower end of a verticallymovable core 20 arranged within an electro-magnet coil 21 mounted withinthe upper part of the casing. Upon energizing the coil 21 by passing anelectric current through the same, the core 20 will be raised togetherwith the locking disk or head 19 mounted thereon and upon breaking the.circuit, so as to de-energize the coil, the core together with thelocking head 19 thereof will drop by gravity into its operativeposition. The downward movement of the locking head 19 is limited byengagement with a stop 22 arranged within the lowerpart of the casingand preferably constructed in the form of a socket. that wall of thelock casing, which faces the front edge of the door 14., the same isprovided with a latch opening 28, which is adapted to receive a latch 24mounted on the door and adapted to interlock with the locking head 19holding the door in its closed position. This latch, in its preferredform, is constructed in the form of a flat plate which is provided atits front end with an opening 25 preferably of circular form which isadapted to receive the look ing head 19. Upon closing the doorpreparatory to locking the same, the locking head 19 is in an elevatedposition and the latch 24 enters the casing through the latch opening 23and carries its locking opening 25 into the line with the socket 22between the time the front end of the door engages with the top 17 andcasing 18. When the parts reach this position the locking head 19 ispermitted to drop into engagement with the locking opening 25 in thelatch and into engagement with the stop socket 22 thereby preventing thewithdrawal of the latch and the opening of the door, while the parts arein this position.

In order to permit of opening the door the solenoid magnet is energizedby passing a current through the coil 21 whereby the locking head 1-9 islifted out of engagement from the stop 22 and the opening 25 in thelatch, thereby releasing the latter and enabling the door to be movedbackwardly into its opened position.

For the purpose of permitting the latch to pass through the latchopening and into the casing in the event that these parts are slightlydisarranged, the lower edge of the latch opening is beveled or rounded,as shown in Fig. 8 whereby the latch will be lifted and guided in thecasing, and the parts are permitted to interlock in the event of anyinaccurate fit or wear on the parts.

Means are provided which will automatically hold the locking head 19 inits elevated inoperative position while the latch is withdrawn from thecasing, but which will be moved out of the path of the latch and enablethe same to be engaged by the locking head19 when the door is moved intoits full closed position. The preferred means for this purpose consistsof a detent 27 preferably of L-shaped form which is pivoted on thecasingunderneath the locking socket 22 by means of a horizontaltransverse pin 28 so that this detent can swing in a vertical plane intoand out of a position across the locking socket 22. This detent isprovided below its pivot with a weight 29 which tends constantly toswing the detent upwardly and forwardly into its operative position.lVhen the latch 24 is in its forward operative position within thecasing and engaged by the locking head 19, the detent is pushedbackwardly and downwardly into its inoperative position in which itengages with the underside of the latch and its weight 29 is elevated.Upon raising the locking head 19 and withdrawing the latch 24 from thepath of the locking head, the weight 29 operates to swing the detent 27upwardly and forwardly so that its nose 30 projects over the lockingseat 22 and below the locking head 19, so that upon subsequentlytie-energizing the coil of the magnet, the locking head 19 will drop andrest upon the upper side of the detent nose 30, as shown in Fig. 4. Whenthe parts are in this position the car door will be automatically lockedupon pushing the door into its closed position and passing its latchinto the casing. During this operation the front end of the latch firstengages with the detent nose and pushes the detent backwardly anddownwardly out of the path of the locking head 19, thereby releasing thelatter and permitting the same to drop on to the latch and into thelocking opening 25 therein, the instant the latch has been movedforwardly sufficiently to bring its locking opening into register withthe locking head 19. During such backward and downward movement of thedetent, its weight 29 is raised ready to again move the detent into itsoperative position underneath the locking head upon the next withdrawalof the latch from the casing. The upper front corner of the latch ispreferably beveled or rounded so as to prevent the same from strikingthe lower front corner of the locking head but instead guiding the sameunderneath the underside thereof, preparatory to pushing the detent outof the way and permitting the locking head to engage therewith. It isdesirable to leave the door opening of the car wall unobstructedthroughout the full width thereof in order to enable its maximumcapacity to be utilized.

In order, therefore, to prevent the latch from projecting or crossingany part of the door opening when the door is fully opened, this latchis pivoted by means of an upright pivot pin 31 to a bracket 32 on thedoor. The latch is permitted to swing outwardly into a position at rightangles to the door by providing the adjacent edge portion of the samewith a notch 33 into which the latch may swing, so that it is flush withthe front edge of the door and projecting laterally outwardly therefrom,as indicated by dotted lines in Figs. 2'and 5. The inward swing motionof the latch is limited when the same reaches the position in which thesame projects forwardly from the edge of the door, the means for thispurpose consisting of a stop heel 34: arranged on the rear part of thelatch and engaging with a stop shoulder 35 on the adjacent part of thebracket 32, as shown in Fig. 5.

In addition to permitting this latch to fully clear the door opening andthereby prevent interference with the movement of the freight into andout of the car, as well as damage to the car, this laterally projectingposition of the latch on the door serves the additional purpose of asignal to indicate to the authorized car operators and freight handlersthat the latch is not in its proper position for engagement with thelocking mechanism in the casing. If therefore the door should be closedwith the latch projecting laterally therefrom, as indicated by dottedlines in Figs. 2 and 5, the attention of the car operators will bedirected to the same and thus avoid the sending away of a car in anunlocked position, which otherwise would expose the same to theft if thelock should have been left in this position either accidentally orpurposely.

The terminals 36 and 37 of the electromagnet coil 21 are preferably sowound that the same can only be energized by an alternating currentwhich is available at the terminals or in stations of the railroad,thereby preventing the look from being operated by persons who mightattach the terminals of a direct generator, such as might be derivedfrom an ordinary battery. This will prevent the operation of the lock byunauthorized persons, inasmuch as it would be ditficult for personsattempting to rob the car to equip themselves with the proper electricalapparatus to operate the car by means of an alternating current of thecycles now in general use, such as the twenty-five cycle and the sixtycycle alternating currents.

In order to prevent malicious persons from tampering with the electricalfeature of this locking device and rendering the same inoperative, theterminals 36, 37 of the coil 21 are preferably mounted upon a yield ingarm 38 which is arranged on the inner side of the lower part of thecasing and preferably mounted at its upper end thereof by means of ahorizontal pivot 39 so that normally this yielding arm will hang by itsweight or gravity in a vertical position and against one of the walls ofthe enclosing casing 18 so that the terminals of the coil are exposedthrough an opening 40 inthis wall of the casing where the same may beengaged by corresponding terminals of a plug 41 which are connected byconductors arranged within a cable 42 with an electric generator 43 ofany suitable character. If a malicious person should pass an instrumentthrough the opening A0 in the casing and attempt to injure the terminals86, 37, the weighted arm 38 will be deflected inwardly by suchinstrument together with the coil terminals mounted thereon and thus prevent injury to these terminals, thereby insuring the retention of thelocking mechanism always in operative condition.

This electric locking device for cars is not only very simple inconstruction, but the same has no parts which are liable to get out oforder under the rough usage to which the same is liable to be subjectedand by reason of the practical impossibility of operating the same by acurrent other than an alternating current, which is not readilyavailable and the means for detecting the doors when the same are closedwithout looking the same, it provides a safe guard against robbing thecontents of the car and insures its safe delivery from the consignor tothe consignee:

I claim as my invention:

1-. A car door lock comprising a locking member, a latch adapted to beengaged by said locking member, electro-magnetic means for disengagingsaid locking member from said latch, and detent members whichautomatically engage with said locking member and hold the same in aninoperative position when the locking head is disengaged from said latchand which is automatic'ally disengaged from said locking member by saidla-t'ch upon moving the latter into a position to be engaged by saidlocking member.

'2. A car door lock comprising a casing adapted to be mounted on a wallof the car and provided with a latch opening, a seat arranged withinsaid casing below said latch opening, a locking head movable verticallytoward and from said seat, a solenoid magnet arranged within said casingand having a coil, and a core movable vertically within said coil andconnected with said locking head, and a latch adapted to be connectedwith the door and movable through said latch opening and having a recessadapted to be engaged by said locking head.

3. A car door lock comprising a casing adapted to be mounted on a wallof the car and provided with a latch opening, a seat arranged withinsaid casing below said latch opening, a locking head movable verticallytoward and from said seat, a solenoid magnet arranged within said casingand having a coil, and a core movable vertically within said coil andconnected with said locking head, a latch adapted to be connected withthe door and movable through said latch opening and having a recessadapted to be engaged by said locking head, and a detent device forholding said locking head in an elevated position when the latch iswithdrawn from said locking head.

4. A car door lock comprising a casing adapted to be mounted on a wallof the car and provided with a latch opening, a seat arranged withinsaid casing below said latch opening, a locking head movable verticallytoward and from said seat, a solenoid magnet arranged within said casingand having a coil, and a core movable vertically within said coil andconnected with said locking head, a latch adapted to be connected withthe door and movable through said latch opening and having a recessadapted to be &

engaged by said locking head and a detent device for holding saidlocking head in an elevated position when the latch is withdrawn fromsaid locking head comprising a vertically swinging detent pivoted in thecasing below said seat and having a nose adapted to pass over said seatin position to engage with the underside of said locking head and to beengaged by the front end of said latch, and means for holding saiddetent yieldingly in its operative position.

5. A car door lock comprising a casing adapted to be mounted on a wallof the car and provided with a latch opening, a seat arranged withinsaid casing below said latch opening, a locking head movable verticallytoward and from said seat, a solenoid magnetarranged within said casingand hav ing a coil, and a core movable vertically within said coil andconnected with said locking head, a latch adapted to be connected withthe door and movable through said latch opening and having a recessadapted to be engaged by said locking head, and a detent deviceforholding saidlocking head in an elevated position when the latch iswithdrawn from said locking head compris ing a vertically swingingdetent pivoted in the casing below said seat and having a nose adaptedto pass over said seat in a position to engage with the underside ofsaid locklng head and to be engaged by the front end of said latch, andmeans for holding said detent yieldingly in its operative positionconsisting of a weight arranged on said detent below the pivot thereof.

6. A car door lock comprising a casing adapted to be mounted on a wallof the car, a locking head movably mounted in the easing, a latch,mounted on the car door and adapted to be engaged by said locking head,electro-magnetic means for controlling the position of said lockinghead, and a yielding support for the terminals of said electro ma neticmeans mounted on the interior of saic casing.

7. A car door lock comprising a casing adapted to be mounted on a wallof the car, a locking head movably mounted in the casing, a latchmounted on the car door and adapted to be engaged by said locking head,electro-magnetic means for controlling the position of said lockinghead, a yielding support for the terminals of said electro-magneticmeans consisting of a weighted arm pivotally supported at its upper endon the interior of said casing and supporting said terminals in linewith an opening in the adjacent wall of said casing.

l VILLIAM J. MARTIN.

